Paul C. Light examines and evaluates the 100 most significant investigations of policy failures, bureaucratic mistakes, and personal misconduct undertaken by the U.S. federal government between 1945 and 2012. Launched by Congress or the president, sometimes by both at the same time, the investigations at the core of this book were driven by the search for answers about significant breakdowns in government performance. Light reveals which investigations were most effective, and why.

Paul C. Light is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. His many books include Driving Social Change: How to Solve the World's Toughest Problems and A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Federal Service and How to Reverse It. He is also a coauthor of Government by the People, now in its 24th edition.